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11 faculty join School of Engineering for 2020-21 academic year

August 20, 2020 - by Kim Delker

The following faculty have joined the School of Engineering in 2020-21:

Amanda Bienz, assistant professor of computer science. Bienz joins UNM from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she was a postdoctoral researcher. Her research is focused on supercomputing topics.

Claus Danielson, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Danielson previously worked as a research scientist at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories. He specializes in model predictive control.

Joseph Haugh, lecturer in the Department of Computer Science. Haugh has been a programmer and analyst with the UNM Clinical and Translational Science Center.

Ali Heydari, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. He was previously an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University. His research interests are theory and application of controls in robotics, assistive walking devices, and cyberphysical systems.

Bruna Jacobson, assistant professor of computer science. She has been a postdoctoral fellow, research assistant professor and adjunct faculty member in UNM’s Department of Computer Science. Her research interests include computational biology and machine learning for biomaterials.

Pankaj Kumar, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Kumar comes from the University of Nevada, Reno, where he was a research assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. His research interests are additive manufacturing techniques for structural alloys.

Hyoung K. Lee, professor and chair of nuclear engineering. Lee was previously at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). His areas of research expertise center around medical physics and nuclear imaging topics, which include applications of nuclear imaging in medicine, nuclear energy, safeguards and nonproliferation; radiation detection; machine learning for spectroscopy and nuclear imaging; and digital image processing, analysis and CT reconstruction.

Haobing Liu, assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering. Liu’s research has focused on transportation, including electrification, statistical analysis, energy modeling, and public health impacts. He comes from Georgia Tech, where he was a research engineer.

Milad Marvian, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. His research focuses of various aspects of quantum computer and information and will hold the additional title of NSF Quantum Computing & Information Science Faculty Fellow. He was previously a postdoctoral associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Anjali Mulchandani, assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering. Mulchandani joins UNM from Arizona State University, where she earned his Ph.D. in environmental engineering. Her research is focused on water treatment and capture/harvesting, and nanotechnology.

Lei Yang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. Yang was previously a postdoctoral associate the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame. Her research interests are in automated machine learning, embedded systems and high-performance computing architectures.

In addition to new faculty joining the School, three faculty members were promoted:

  • Meeko Oishi to professor of electrical and computer engineering
  • Payman Zarkesh-Ha to professor of electrical and computer engineering
  • Matthias Pleil to senior lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering

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